


reminisce some time, the night they took my friend

by jonks



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Platonic Relationships, Sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-27 02:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30116004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonks/pseuds/jonks
Summary: Two weeks of frantic searching, and Tubbo still had nothing. No clues, no signs.
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> just a warning: i have absolutely no idea where this story is gonna go. i'm just kinda vibing  
> idea credit: @skyesailor & @itsagoblininnit on tiktok :)

"Have you seen Tommy lately?" It had been a day since Tubbo had seen his best friend, and he was starting to worry about the absence of Tommy's insistent chatter. If Tommy had been able to hear his thoughts he would have surely called him clingy, but his worry was starting to interfere with his life. He couldn't fully focus on anything, couldn't stick to any of his plans. Ever since the nuke testing, something had felt off. 

Fundy simply shook his head at Tubbo's question and moved off to continue building his base. Tubbo had spent his day asking the other members of Snowchester and the Dream SMP if they'd seen his best friend, and every answer had been the same. He'd even gone to the Prison and asked Dream if he'd done something to him, had had someone on the outside doing his dirty work for him. 

But Dream's face had fallen, his skin turned ashy, and his eyes started to water. "What's happened to Tommy?" he had asked quietly. He turned to his chest and pulled out a book and began furiously writing in it as tears dripped onto the paper. He muttered to himself, quiet enough that Tubbo hadn't been able to hear him. So he'd left Dream there, and continued to search for Tommy. 

But he found nothing. 

Two weeks of frantic searching, and Tubbo still had nothing. No clues, no signs. Everyone had begun to give up, had started going about their daily lives again like nothing had happened. only Tubbo continued to search for his friend. He went over every conversation he'd had with Tommy, every word that they'd exchanged, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. 

Tommy had run around shouting obscenities at people, stealing their things, and singing to himself as he went. Most people hadn't known that Tommy could sing, but every once in a while his "band kid" side would come out and he'd start singing Broadway songs. He'd recently discovered the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack, and he'd been singing it constantly, almost to the point of annoyance for Tubbo. But as long as Tommy was happy, Tubbo could deal with the incessant singing. 

He continued to analyze the conversations they'd had, and finally something stuck out. 

Tommy had loved the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack, but there had been one song that he'd sung over and over again until Tubbo knew all the lyrics despite never listening to the song himself: Waving Through A Window. Above all that, there had been one line that he'd repeated constantly, that he'd fixated on above all the rest. _When you're falling in a forest and there's nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?_

Tubbo hadn't thought much of it at first, had just thought Tommy was trying to annoy him, but now Tubbo thought it could mean something else. 

And then it clicked. All of it. 

He broke into a sprint, all the way from Tommy's house to the Nether portal by the Community House. He sprinted until he came upon another portal far from the first, jumped through it and found himself on an island in the middle of an ocean. He hadn't brought a boat, and had nothing to craft one, so he swam toward the mainland, toward the one person who would live so far from everyone else. His body was aching and his lungs were screaming but he kept swimming as fast as he could until finally his toes could scrabble on the ocean floor. He dragged himself up on the sand and allowed himself a moment of rest before continuing forward. The forest was thick and the trees began to block out the sun, but after what felt like hours wandering alone he saw the outline of a house. 

He collapsed to his knees and pounded on the wall that he knew was concealing the main house until his hands were scraped and bloody. It felt like hours before he heard the clicking of redstone going off and the wall dropped in front of him to reveal Sam and Puffy standing there with their arms crossed. For a moment Sam’s face was annoyed, but when he saw Tubbo’s tear-stained cheeks and bleeding hands his eyes softened and the annoyance faded into panic. 

Puffy flew forward and wrapped him in a tight hug as Sam knelt down to meet Tubbo on the ground. 

“Tubbo, what’s wrong?” Sam asked. 

“It’s – it’s Tommy.”

“Tubbo, I don’t think Tommy is coming back.” Sam said gently. 

“No you – you don’t understand. He – they –” Tubbo wasn’t able to get a full sentence out, his breath coming in great gasps. 

Puffy let him go and looked in his eyes. “Tubbo, take a breath. Calm down. Tell us what’s wrong.”

“Jack and Niki! They were trying to kill him!” 

If it was possible, Sam’s face fell even more. “What are you talking about?”

Tubbo swallowed and drew in a deep breath, his breathing slowing down a considerable amount. “Leading up to the nuke test, Tommy kept singing this one line from a song over and over again. ‘When you’re falling in a forest and there’s nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?’ He was trying to warn me, to tell me what they were planning and I didn’t catch on.”

Sam and Puffy looked at each other, the skepticism clear on their faces. Puffy was the one to speak up first, her voice sad and quiet. “Tubbo, I think you’re grasping at straws here. I don’t think there was a plot against him, I think Tommy just disappeared.”

“No! You’re not fucking listening to me! _He was trying to warn me_. I know it. Just think about it. ‘When you’re falling in a forest and there’s nobody around’. He knew we were lighting off the nukes in a forest. He was talking about the nukes falling and how Jack and Niki were going to lure him there when the time was right. He was talking about when he was going to fall, when he was going to die. ‘Do you ever really crash or even make a sound?’ He _knew_ they were going to kill him, and he was trying to tell me that. ‘Even make a sound’, he knew he was going to be alone, that we wouldn’t be able to find him. Please, you _have_ to realise that I’m right. I know that I’m right.” He kept repeating his thoughts to his friends, unable to stop the flow of words. 

As he talked Puffy’s eye grew wide, realisation dawning on her face. She looked at Sam who still seemed doubtful about it all. “Sam, I think he’s right. We need to go, now.” She pulled Tubbo to his feet and wiped away his tears. “Take us to the forest.”

Everything started moving fast then. Sam ran into his home to grab some supplies; boats, warmer clothes, a few different tools, and then they were off. 

They reached the nuke site as fast as they possibly could and began scouring the forest and the explosion site. But after hours of searching, there was still nothing. No sign of Tommy, the one person that Tubbo loved and relied on to keep him in line. 

Puffy and Sam had stopped looking and just watched Tubbo as he wandered around. He kept having to wipe his eyes to see where he was walking, his vision constantly blurry. 

Puffy was sitting on the ground talking quietly to Sam when they heard a loud scream coming from the forest. They jumped to their feet and followed the consistent sobs until they came upon Tubbo kneeling in the snow. He was folded in on himself, his back shaking as his body was wracked with sobs. 

Sam approached Tubbo slowly and placed a gentle hand on his back. “Tubbo?”

The boy lifted his head and turned to his friends, his face red and tear-stained, his lips quivering. In his lap laid his hands, clenched together so tightly that his knuckles were white. They’d never seen him this way, this distraught. 

And then Tubbo opened his fists. 

And sitting there, slowly disintegrating in the gentle wind, was a burnt red bandana.


	2. Chapter 2

_You’re here… What are you doing here?… What happened to you?… Hello, have you missed me?_

He opened his eyes slowly, the voice ringing in his ears and the sun burning brightly as he took in the world around him. He gave his eyes time to adjust then looked at his surroundings, his eyebrows knitting together as he realized he didn’t know where he was. In fact, he didn’t even know who he was. 

He was wearing a white shirt T-shirt with red sleeves, blue jeans, and a small red bandana around his neck. He didn’t have any shoes. There was a song playing somewhere in the distance, a slow tune that sounded like it would be used in a waltz. It had a slightly spooky feeling to it. He was seated in what he guessed was a white tent, though it seemed to be missing a roof. In fact, he was laying in the dirt in the middle of a small crater. Beside him was a small blueish green chest with an eye on it. There was nothing else near him. 

He pushed himself off the ground and left the crater, trying to find something he could use to identify where he was. After scanning his surroundings, he came to the conclusion that nothing was familiar. There was a large Christmas tree to his right, and beyond that a small beach. To his left was what looked like a campsite, though he couldn’t be sure since it was just another crater, and a… ruined portal?

He decided to investigate the campsite a little more, his footsteps wary as he walked. There was a small wooden wall around the area hiding the contents of the camp, and in the distance he could see a tall pillar stretching far into the sky. It seemed very out of place, like it had been recently built. 

He reached the front of the walls and noticed a sign hanging on the wood. Someone had written the word _Logstedshire_ in a crude font, though he didn’t know what that meant. 

Gazing inside the ruined campsite, he saw the remnants of a small home, and there were a few barrels that had survived the destruction scattered throughout the site, though when he looked in them all he found was some wood and a lot of cobblestone. Nothing of importance. 

It was then that he noticed the small chain hanging around his neck and leading under his shirt. He tugged on it and felt a small weight at the end, so he lifted it up and found a small compass hanging there. On the back of the cool metal were the words “Your Tubbo”, and the compass needle was pointing straight ahead of him. He didn’t know who Tubbo was, but he had a feeling that the compass was important. 

He turned back toward the tent and noticed that the compass didn’t move. It was stuck pointing behind him back near the campsite. He decided that it couldn’t hurt to follow it, so he walked forward, the wet grass cold on his bare feet. The song he was hearing didn’t grow and louder or quieter, instead stayed the same volume no matter where he went. Almost like it was playing in his own head. 

He walked around the wooden walls and toward the back, the giant tower growing taller and taller as he got closer. Whoever had built it must’ve needed a good lookout. When the base of the tower came into view, he noticed someone kneeling in front of it. It was a boy. He had brown hair, and his back was hunched as he curled in on himself. His shoulders were shaking and his hands were covering his face. 

He was crying. Sobbing, actually. 

He sidled up to the boy and placed a gentle hand on his back, hoping he could provide some comfort to the stranger. Upon feeling his touch, the boy’s head jerked up to stare at him, his eyes going wide as he took in the compass in his hands. He could only assume that this was Tubbo. 

“Tommy?” he said quietly, disbelief lacing his words. 

He turned to look behind him, thinking he boy was addressing someone he couldn’t see. When he didn’t see anyone else, he turned back to the crying boy and said, “I’m sorry?”

The boy – Tubbo – pushed himself to his feet, and it turned out that he was quite a bit shorter than him. 

“I thought you were gone!” Tubbo flung himself forward and wrapped his arms around him, Tubbo’s face buried in his neck and his fingers clutched his shirt in his fists as though he was going to disappear. 

He didn’t feel the need to push the poor boy away, but he felt pity for him as he realized that his friend Tommy was missing. “I don’t know who Tommy is, but I can help you try to find him.” He felt a great need to help this boy, in whatever way he could. “Your name is Tubbo?”

The boy pulled away and stared at his face for a moment. His eyes widened with what looked like shock and maybe fear, though he wasn’t sure what the boy could be afraid of. “You don’t remember me?”

“I’m sorry. Should I?”

The boy simply shook his head, understanding seeming to dawn on his face. “Yes, my name is Tubbo.”

“Can I help you find your friend? Tommy, right?” 

“That’s right. He disappeared a few weeks ago, and I was hoping I’d find him today. But I’m pretty sure he’s dead.”

“Why would you think that?”

Tubbo sighed. “It’s just a feeling.” He ran his fingers through his hair before rubbing them on his face. He let out a loud sigh before speaking again. “I know where we should go first. There’s a country a little ways from here. I’m hoping he’ll be waiting there for me. If not, I have a way to find him, assuming it will still work.” Tubbo led the way to the water where a wooden boat was sitting, with just enough room for two people to squish in. 

They climbed in and the boy grabbed the oars, perfectly content to row for the both of them. 

“I’m gonna call you… GhostInnit. Is that okay?”

He nodded his head, not understanding where the name came from but just happy that he had something he could call himself. “So, this Tommy. What’s he like?”

“Tommy?” Tubbo stared into the horizon as he rowed, seeming unwilling to make eye contact with him. “Tommy was – _is_ my best friend. He did a lot for me. He saved me in more ways than one if I’m being honest. He was my brother in every way but blood. He cared about his friends, and was always willing to take stupid risks if it meant he could come out victorious.” Another loud sigh. “But he was reckless. He did some things that he really shouldn’t have, and it got him in trouble with some… not great people. When we tried to make it better for him, he managed to make it worse. Some of us got so fed up that we snapped and sent him away. It’s one of my biggest regrets – watching him walk away from me and just letting him go.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”

“There was a lot that happened more recently, more stuff that happened with those bad people. It was looking pretty grim for the both of us for a while, we both thought we were going to die.”

“What happened?”

“Our friends saved us, and the bad person was thrown in jail. I had hoped that that would be the end of the plots against us, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Plots?”

“Some people that we thought were on our side showed their true colors.” He began to understand what Tubbo was implying, the mood quickly turning somber. 

“I hope you’re wrong.”

“Yeah. Me too.” He didn’t sound hopeful. 

The rest of the boat ride was more or less quiet, save for the music playing from an unknown location, and it was only when they saw land again that the boy spoke. “So, this is where we’re getting off. We’re gonna have to walk a bit, but we’ll be there soon.” GhostInnit followed closely behind Tubbo, observing his surroundings in hopes that something would look familiar. The boy kept talking, explaining the origins of the country and how his friends Wilbur and Tommy had started a drug empire in a van that expanded into the beginnings of their new country. He explained the wars that had occurred and how Tommy had been their leader for all of them, had risked his life to procure their independence. 

And then, on the horizon, he saw the buildings. They were covered in snow and there was a wall surrounding the entire area. They were beautiful, well-built and sturdy.

But still he remembered nothing. 

He saw a couple people running around happily, their shouts echoing through the area. They didn’t pay any attention to him or Tubbo as they passed. 

They stopped in front of a certain building while Tubbo rooted through his pockets. There was a small jingling sound as he grabbed his keys and slid them into the lock, then he gently slid open the front doors and gestured for him to follow. Once inside, Tubbo shut the doors and began to root through his chests. He was clearly searching for something specific and was having trouble locating it. 

“Where is it?” he muttered to himself. 

“Anything I can help you with?”

“It’s not here, where could it be?” Maybe Tubbo hadn’t heard him. He had a tendency to talk quietly, and wouldn’t have been surprised if Tubbo just hadn’t heard his soft voice. The boy disappeared into the basement where GhostInnit could hear lots of rummaging. His desperation was clear. 

“What are you looking for?” he called down to the boy. 

“Umm, it’s a compass.”

He looked down at his chest where his own compass was hiding under his shirt. “One like mine?”

“Yeah.” He tried to help Tubbo by looking through his chests, but came up empty-handed. Ten minutes had passed and still they hadn’t found anything, so a dejected Tubbo gave up his search. 

“Follow me,” Tubbo said quietly. “There’s somewhere else I want to go.”

“Don’t you want to keep looking for Tommy?”

“I’m hoping we’ll run into him as we walk.” Tubbo led him out of his home and away from the small city. They wandered around for a while until they came upon another inhabited area. This one looked a little worse for the wear though.

The people that lived around here must have had a thing for craters, because GhostInnit found himself staring down into yet another one. There were remnants of buildings all around it, and there was a strange black structure outline high in the sky, spanning the entirety of the hole. When he looked down he could just make out a flag of some kind, though it was covered in thick, red vines. Surrounding the crater were many towers, some made of cobblestone, others made of blackstone. There was a massive castle with rainbow beacons out front and a wooden path that wound through the entire place. Tubbo kept telling him what all the buildings were while they walked until eventually they came upon a pair of doors set into the side of a hill. Above the door read _TommyInnit’s House_. 

“Oh, is this Tommy’s house?” he asked. 

Tubbo rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I lived here for a bit so I’m hoping that the compass might be here.” 

The music was still playing in his head; faintly, but enough that it kept distracting him. He turned to a frantic Tubbo and said, "I'm sorry Tubbo, but do you hear that too?"

The boy looked up at him, confusion written on his face. "Hear what?"

"You don't hear music playing?"

Tubbo slowly shook his head. "Do you?" GhostInnit nodded, and the boy was silent for a moment. "What does it sound like?"

"It's the same thing, over and over again. It's a kind of a slow, spooky sounding song. Like something you'd hear at a Halloween waltz."

Tubbo's eyes widened for a moment before returning to their normal size. He rooted through the same green-ish chest that had been on the island before pulling something out. A small disc with a purple ring in the middle that he placed into a jukebox. After a moment a strange melody started to ring through the air. 

"Does it sound like this?" Tubbo asked him. 

It was the exact same sound, just a little louder now that it was right in front of him. 

"Yeah. It's the same. What is it?"

Tubbo took the disc out and stored it back in the chest before turning to GhostInnit. He noticed that Tubbo never seemed to be able to look him in the eyes, though it didn't bother GhostInnit that much. "It's a long story, but basically that's your disc. You listened to it all the time. It makes sense that you'd be hearing it now."

"But why can't you hear it?"

Tubbo told him that he didn't know, but that it was very interesting that only GhostInnit could hear it. They dropped the subject pretty quickly after that. 

Another ten minutes of searching for Tubbo's compass, and still nothing. 

While they were there though, another person walked inside the home. 

He was wearing a soft yellow shirt, black pants, and a beanie, and his skin was so pale it looked like he hadn’t seen the sun in years. He looked almost translucent. 

“Hello,” the newcomer said softly. The way he said the word made GhostInnit swear he’d heard the man’s voice before, though the first time he’d heard it, it had been more… stable. Less fluttery and echoey, more rooted. But as he looked at the person, he had no feelings of recognition. Tubbo turned to look at him and smiled. 

“Hello Ghostbur, how are you?”

“I’m good, I’m good. I was just taking Friend for a walk and I saw you come in here so I wanted to say hi. I’ve missed you Tubbo, I haven’t seen you in so long.” 

“I know Ghostbur, I’m sorry but I’ve just been… dealing with some things.” 

“I understand Tubbo.” The ghost seemed to have just noticed that he was there, and his pale face stared into his. “Hello. Who are you?”

He wasn’t sure how to respond. “Um… I don’t know –”

“I’m calling him GhostInnit, Ghostbur.” Tubbo interrupted. 

“ – But I’m helping Tubbo to find his friend Tommy. And you are?” 

“Oh, I’m Ghostbur!” 

“Ghost?”

“Yeah! I died a while ago because my dad stabbed me through the chest. I can’t remember why he did that though, but it was a very happy memory for me.”

“Ghostbur, that doesn’t sound like a very happy memory. You died!” Ghostbur seemed strange to him, but not in a bad way. In an innocent way. 

“I did die, that’s true. But it put an end to Alivebur, and no one liked him. He did bad things.”

“But if you were Alivebur, then how can you not remember what happened?”

“I forget sad things! I only have happy memories from when I was alive. Like when Tommy and I founded L’Manberg!” That name rang through his head, triggering something inside him that hadn’t been there before. 

His thoughts began to race, pictures flashing in his head that were bringing back bits and pieces of memories he didn’t know he had. L’Manberg. Henry. Discs. Buttons, so many buttons. 

He clutched his head as it pounded, trying to block out the noise. Tubbo was saying something to him but he couldn’t hear it. All he could hear was the noise in his head. 

And then it was gone. 

His head cleared and the world came back into focus. 

“Are you okay?” Tubbo was asking.

“I think so,” he replied hesitantly. 

“What just happened?”

“I don’t know. But I think I remember some things.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened with shock. “Really? Like what?”

“Not much, just really vague pieces of things. I remember the name L’Manberg. I remember something called Henry; I think it was a cow, though that doesn’t really make any sense to me. I remember some discs, music discs I think they were, but I can’t imagine why those would be important. Oh, and something about buttons.”

“Is that all?” Tubbo asked. 

“Well, there’s one more thing, and it’s the most sure I feel of all of this.”

“What is it?” 

GhostInnit smiled widely to himself. “I remember my best friend… His name’s Dream.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i know Tubbo's compass got blown up but imma pretend it didn't...  
> we're also just gonna pretend that Mellohi was the one that Tubbo got in his ender chest in the disc finale and not Cat, okay? Okay.

**Author's Note:**

> i have no idea if that made sense to you guys, but oh well


End file.
